Chiana SHS students sleep in the open

Hundreds of students of the Chiana Senior High School (SHS) in Kasena-Nankana West District of the Upper East in Region sleep in the open at the mercy of the current unfavourable weather conditions and dangerous reptiles.

The students, it is gathered, would have to endure their current predicament until government redeems its pledge of properly housing them to promote proper teaching and learning.

Despite management’s contingent measures to convert two old classroom blocks to accommodate them, the situation has not seen any significant improvement.

Checks by DAILY GUIDE revealed that students who are lucky to be allocated rooms in either the boys or girls dormitories would have to contend to congestion as a room meant for 40 persons is now accommodating over 150.

In the event of the outbreak of communicable disease like Ebola, chicken pox and the likes, most students are likely to be affected if what currently pertains in the school continue.

Some students, the paper observed, sleep on the bare flood while others continue to sleep on the verandah of the dormitory blocks and exposed to danger in view of the fact that the school itself has no fence wall.

The situation at some classrooms was not any different at the time of DAILY GUIDE’s visit to the school last Wednesday morning, with some students hanging on windows while others were seen standing at the verandah to be part of classes.

There is no adequate furniture in these classrooms except some few benches and double-deck study desks that had been placed in the classrooms, forcing students to devise various ways to learn in the classrooms.

The school’s dining hall itself was in a sorry state with no improvement since its construction more than three decades ago without furniture, compelling students to have their meals on the bare floor.

The Headmaster of the school, Cletus Atubiga, disclosed that he has been in talks with the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) to relocate the male students into a private hostel in town.

“We may also rely on the abandoned ICT centre belonging to the community in town to house some of the students,” he disclosed.

According to him, the lack of proper accommodation and classroom blocks are having a toll on the academic performance of the students numbering a little over 1,000.

He disclosed that new structures for the school under the auspices of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) were at various levels of completion.

The projects, including an administration block, boys and girls dormitory, he indicated, could salvage the institution from its current quagmire if completed.

Mr Atubiga, however, noted that some of the contractors had abandoned the site with no record of when last they visited the project site; on claims they have not been paid.

The girls’ dormitory which is 90 percent complete, he observed, had been locked up by the contractor pending when GETFund would pay raised certificate in order for him to resume work.

These challenges, he explained, had brought pressure on management in the wake of a litany of problems that require urgent redress.

The Chiana SHS until its current status was one of the middle boarding schools but was converted into present day SHS system five years ago.

The school was in September 2014 allocated 529 of new admissions by the Ghana Education Service (GES) in the wake of its constraints.